from los angeles, with more than three-hour delays overnight, to denver, to the big apple. new york's three airports at one point averaging three-hour delays. >> a little frustrating, especially at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning. >> reporter: some of the delays were weather-related. among the three-hour delays, the new york to washington, d.c. shuttle. not to rub salt in anyone's wounds. but the train would have gotten them there faster. >> because of sequestration, the line to take off was over an hour long. >> reporter: the faa is blaming the delays on across-the-board budget cuts which, it says, forced it on to furlough 15,000 air traffic controllers and other workers and were spacing out flights in the name of safety. several hundred flights delayed, less than the agency's prediction of 6,700 daily flight delays. but transportation secretary ray lahood warns abc, we might see an airplane apocalypse yet. >> we did not take into account weather activities. these delays could get extended beyond the 60 to 90 minutes. >> reporter: late monday, i decided to investigate the delays